Hello everyone,

So I have a problem that I cannot seem to get solved in Excel. I am looking to set up a spreadsheet to allow me to input angles, friction coefficients, and weights of wedges to get the force required to move the objected wedge. Everything was going well until I tried solving for N2 and N1. Here is the formula I need to solve:

μ = 0.25

-700 - μN1 - μN2(.156) + N2(.988) = 0

given it's a two variable function, we can solve for N1 with the variable N2 and substitute that equation in, so we are left with only N2.

N1 = μN2(.988) + N2(.156) = 0.403N2

So...

We plug that back into the equation, using the cell N1 because it will be variable and change, we cannot simply input "μ*0.403N2"

-700 - μ(N1) - μN2(.156) + N2(.988) = 0

However, since N1 uses N2 in the formula, and same with N2 referencing N1, there seems to be a loop I cannot get around. On paper, I can solve for N2 in a heartbeat and finish the equation. Does anyone know how to get Excel to solve that last equation? Thank you!